My life has been committed to dance, fitness and posture. And although everyone I have ever worked with has a unique tension template that presents a unique posture blueprint of his or her life story, there is a generic posture quirk that we all seem to share.

We typically keep our weight back on our heels rather than on the balls of our feet.

The most notable change in the human evolutionary silhouette is how the pelvis has had to adjust forward for an upright posture and bipedality––two-legged walking­. I suspect our generic posture quirk is illustrating that we are still in the evolutionary arch of this metamorphosis.

When our weight lags behind like this it causes our pelvis to tip, hip joints to compress, and our spine loses its S-curve. The back muscles, iliopsoas and quadriceps muscles all have to overwork. The result is back pain, hip and leg tightness, and we literally shrink our height.

The support needed to achieve our uprightness lives in the buttock muscles. These powerhouse muscles are the strongest muscles we possess; yet, we wag them, tuck them, and sit on them more than we use them!

The way to access the buttock muscles for the purpose of standing upright, and owning your strength, is to adjust your hip bones forward. These are the two pointy bones in the front of each hip, not the central pubic bone.

To do this, simply rock your body’s weight onto the balls of your feet and you will feel your pelvis adjust under you. Once you permit the hip bones to be aligned, your buttock muscles naturally engage so you don’t fall on your face.

The moment the buttock muscles engage you experience their power supporting your torso’s weight, instead of your lower back muscles supporting you. Also, you immediately adjust your attention from experiencing what’s in front of you, to experiencing what’s above you.

This upward attention is with gravity, the universal force that is constantly beckoning you out of the status quo to embrace what is unique in you.

Upward attention also stops the forward momentum that distracts you from being present.

And finally, upward attention connects you with the Divine, both within and without.

Your buttock muscles power you through challenge and pad your bones to rest. From start to finish the buttocks keep you in relationship with your power and vulnerability, keeping you stable and content with whatever unfolds in each passing moment.

In the Tao te Ching it states:

True wisdom seems foolish…

The Master allows things to happen.

She shapes events as they come.

To allow your buttock muscles to support your uprightness by placing your hip bones properly forward you develop strength and evolve beyond survival; if you clench the buttock muscles forcing the pubic bone forward misalignment and rigidity are, not only introduced but, what becomes your familiar go to posture.

As a race we are always evolving: physically, mentally, and emotionally, to align with evolving circumstances and environments. Strength is mastered by realizing the necessity to be fluid, neutral and present. Strength is lived by stretching to the outermost limits of an action, thought, or emotion, so regularly that it becomes second nature to be your whole self.

Wake up your buttock muscles with proper bone placement and you will rewire your core strength!